Assessment of PCL/carbon material scaffolds for bone regeneration.

Biomanufacturing is a relatively new research domain focusing on the use of additive manufacturing technologies, biomaterials, cells and biomolecular signals to produce tissue constructs for tissue engineering. For bone regeneration, researchers are focusing on the use of polymeric and polymer/ceramic scaffolds seeded with osteoblasts or mesenchymal stem cells. However, the design of high-performance scaffolds in terms of mechanical, cell-stimulation and biological performance is still required. This is the first paper investigating the use of an extrusion additive manufacturing system to produce poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), PCL/graphene nanosheet (GNS) and PCL/carbon nanotube (CNT) scaffolds for bone applications. Scaffolds with regular and reproducible architecture were produced and evaluated from chemical, physical and biological points of view. Results suggest that the addition of both graphene and CNT allow the fabrication of scaffolds with improved properties. It also shows that scaffolds containing graphene present better mechanical properties and high cell-affinity improving cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation.